What Can a GNOME Do?  Search Targets for the Global Network of Optical Magnetometers for Exotic Physics Searches

Abstract

Numerous observations suggest that there exist undiscovered beyond‐the‐standard‐model particles and fields. Because of their unknown nature, these exotic particles and fields could interact with standard model particles in many different ways and assume a variety of possible configurations. Here, an overview of the global network of optical magnetometers for exotic physics searches (GNOME), the ongoing experimental program designed to test a wide range of exotic physics scenarios, is presented. The GNOME experiment utilizes a worldwide network of shielded atomic magnetometers (and, more recently, comagnetometers) to search for spatially and temporally correlated signals due to torques on atomic spins from exotic fields of astrophysical origin. The temporal characteristics of a variety of possible signals currently under investigation such as those from topological defect dark matter (axion‐like particle domain walls), axion‐like particle stars, solitons of complex‐valued scalar fields (Q‐balls), stochastic fluctuations of bosonic dark matter fields, a solar axion‐like particle halo, and bursts of ultralight bosonic fields produced by cataclysmic astrophysical events such as binary black hole mergers are surveyed.

Dynamic Response of a Light-Modulated Magnetometer to Time-Dependent Fields

“…Most of the application fields envisaged for atomic magnetometers were identified on the basis of their excellent sensitivity, and, in the case of radio-frequency magnetometers, on their response to high-frequency fields. In addition to their use as state-of-the-art detectors in fundamental physics experiments [9], among these application fields emerges the detection of bio-magnetism, e.g., in the construction of magneto-encephalographs [10,11], magneto-cardiographs [12][13][14], and magneto-miographs [15]. Another promising area is represented by nuclear magnetic resonance in ultra-low (e.g., at microtesla level) or even vanishing fields, where atomic magnetometers find use as non-inductive detectors [16][17][18][19][20], and also in imaging experiments [21][22][23][24].…”